Hello all,
Hope someone can help. I have been using Audacity for a while to make intros and segments themes for my podcast and it works great. But I now have the problem that my podcast site sometimes doesn’t record or cut out and drops the internet connection. I can upload as well as record live, but choose live for call-ins. I use the site BlogTalkRadio.com and have for a few years. They are completely worthless to answer any questions so I now just accept that some of my shows won’t be recorded. Hence, I want to use Audacity to record while I do my podcast as a backup in case the live recording fails for some reason. My problem is that I get an echo when I use it on a live recording. I tried turning down the mic and speaker all the way and that seems to fix it but the mic and speaker will come back up on their own, especially when the 2nd or 3rd XLR mic is spoken into. It is a very noticible echo and does NOT seem to have this problem when I am not recording live, the mic and speaker volume will stay at zero. I want the file to record not just me but the sounds of the podcast as well which are on the site.
My setup is an MSI mid range gaming laptop, a Mackie mixer with pre-amp, a fairly nice microphone (about $200), and a multi channel headphone amp since the makcie only has one phone jack. When I just use the equipment it sounds amazing, and if I can record without the level on the mic and speaker changing it sounds great off the audacity recording. Besides the echo, if I have the USB passthrough turned up too high that seems to cause a terrible thumping feedback (bass, not high end squeal.)
Can anybody help me here? I just want to record a back up for my show that I can upload if my live one fails.
Do you have the theatrically complete mix in your headphones? You, the guests and the internet feed? Does it sound OK?
Take a copy of the headphone service into a second computer or recorder and record it that way. You can get an adapter to get your cellphone to record it. It doesn’t have to be a full-on computer.
Does the internet feed get a theatrically correct version of the show? Make a second computer join the network connection as a silent partner. It’s job is to record all of the network traffic but not have a microphone.
It’s very nearly impossible to make one single computer do all the jobs you need. There will always be one job that gets left out. My guess is you are recording the Audacity Playthrough service which is going to be one computer late. That’s the echo. It’s the latencies of the Audacity record and playback services. If you fix that, one of the other services will drop dead.
I would not be shocked to find out Recording the total stream is what that BlogTalkRadio.com is doing. It’s dead simple and you don’t need a particularly powerful computer to do it.
Koz
Yes everything sounds terrific in my headphones when we do the show. Including the sounds coming back from my computer into the mixer. When the show records as planned on Blogtalk the sound is exceptional as we use nice mics and a quality mixer and cables.
My cohost always has a computer with him, so I could have him record. He is apple so I think he uses garage band. What is the best way to record on his end since the USB connector will be going to my computer? Do I just run a cable from the headphone amp to his mic in on the laptop? I forget the dimension but use a 1/4" (?) to the headphone jack size on a computer/phone cable? It goes into the mic jack not the headphone jack I am guessing?